大象传媒

Pre-war, I was 6 years old of age at the beginning of the war and my first memory of this event was collecting hay on spare land in the village on the 'Rec'. I was with my Father and my friend when my Father asked us to hide under the hay rick. Little realising; my Father told us to stay under and keep our heads down but we looked out and saw above us 2 aircraft swerving and diving about each other with sounds of gun fire between them. This lasted for about 10 minutes when both aircrafts parted in different directions.
My Father was conscripted into the forces, leaving his wife and 4 children, along with an allotment, 12 goats and a loft of pigeons. This was too much for my Mum who then sold all the goats and pigeons and moved to North Shields.
On the night of the heaviest raid on North Shields my brother and sisters took me to Howard Cinema, Howard Street, known locally as Lop-House. The film on that occasion was called 'Beyond the Blue Horizon', starring Dorothy Lamour. During the film and in the event of an air raid a notice was flashed on to the screen AIR RAID IN PROGRESS and you could leave or stay to see the film. We could hear heavy gun fire/bomb explosions and delayed ourselves leaving the cinema. The noise outside increased, it was then we decided to leave. When we got outside it was so bright with search lights and fired buildings along with tremendous explosions that we ran fast as we could to get home. We had to take refuge in shop door-ways for our safety until we arrived home.

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